But what Joe didn't realize was that a lot of people were working hard to make his life better.

After his time in the spotlight was over, Hollywood animal trainer Steve Martin's Working Wildlife - which is listed as an "equipment rental agency" (and has no relation to Steve Martin the actor) - dropped Joe off at Alabama's Mobile Zoo. This was in 1999.

In a Hollywood-esque plot of its own right, animal advocates filed a lawsuit against the Mobile Zoo, and asked for Joe's freedom as ransom.

The zoo had violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to allegations from PETA, by "isolating Joe, a member of a highly social species, in a virtually barren enclosure and allowing visitors to throw peanuts at and harass him."

Joe isn't the only lonely animal to come out of Hollywood. Many others out there end up with the same solitary fate, after the spotlight dims. "Chimpanzees used by the entertainment industry are routinely discarded at shoddy roadside zoos like the Mobile Zoo the second they are no longer profitable babies," Brittany Peet, PETA's deputy director of captive animal law enforcement, said in a statement.

But Joe's one lucky chimp. This month, Joe set out on a journey to his beautiful new home, Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida.

He and his team even made a pitstop to meet a special someone: Jane Goodall.

When Joe met Geraldine, his new companion, "he immediately gave her a big hug," a press release said.

Then he promptly started grooming her.

"Joe is a remarkably sweet-tempered chimpanzee and he has adapted extremely well to his new environment," Molly Polidoroff, director of Save the Chimps, told The Dodo. "He has already been introduced to an adult female, Geraldine, and they have spent time together. Just today he met Timmy - another very sweet-tempered adult male chimpanzee - and they have been playing and holding hands most of the afternoon."